That's the message supporters of powerful Republican State Sen. Nick Spano gave to hundreds of black and Hispanic Westchester residents on Election Day with an ugly campaign of voter intimidation at several polling sites.

"For most of the day, it felt like I was in the South," said one Democratic Party lawyer.

As of yesterday, Democratic challenger Andrea Stewart-Cousins appeared to have narrowly upset Spano in a bitterly fought 35th District race.

Stewart-Cousins, Westchester's best-known black leader, was ahead by more than 2,100 votes. Spano, however, has refused to concede. He is clinging to the hope that a tally of absentee and affidavit ballots will erase his opponent's lead - one that withstood questionable tactics on Election Day.

The worst example was seen at the Police Athletic League gymnasium on North Broadway in Yonkers, a largely minority neighborhood.

A large throng of Republican volunteers, many of them wearing Yonkers Fire Department shirts and union caps, gathered inside the polling place and repeatedly challenged the signatures of many of those coming in to vote, said Frank Streng, a White Plains attorney who visited the North Broadway site in the late afternoon as a Democratic Party legal monitor.

The widespread challenges led to long lines of angry black voters. Eventually, Streng convinced police and county election officials to show up and reduce the number of Republican poll-watchers. The law allows only three per election district.

But North Broadway wasn't the only polling place with problems. At another site in Yonkers, a vandal smeared epoxy on the machine lever for Stewart-Cousins so it could not be pulled. Hours were lost while technicians repaired the machine.

..............................And this week came the lowest point of all.

The leaders of this union of mostly black and Hispanic workers did everything they could to defeat a progressive black woman Democratic candidate in Westchester. They did so even as their Republican allies in that race were intimidating black voters.

And despite all that, Stewart-Cousins was still leading in the count in the Deep South of Westchester.

Dear Dan,

Seems that gambit of yours didn't work out, did it? I bet you and Dennis Rivera feel like fucking idiots. You backed a long time racist, Nick Spano, over a progressive African-American woman, Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Didn't you take the hint last time that she was going to get that seat?

No?

Sorry.

But the problem is that you think black people are stupid. The racists up in Yonkers, the same people who protested public housing and desegregating the schools are now the same people you back?

At a time when Joe Bruno's grip is failing on the Senate, you decide to help him out. He's got no friends left, so you see a progressive black woman and toss her overboard. Yeah, so exactly what does she owe you? Nothing.

See, one of the reasons progressives are regarded as full of shit is that they refuse to make the hard decisions, to stick with prinicples over dealmaking. If you want to be a progressive party, you have to act like one, and not doing Joe Bruno's bidding.

Now, you're gonna come back to the city and talk about your multi-racial progressive policies to bullshit the negroes again.

A vote for Spano is sabotaging everything you believe in. You see the racist, thuggist tactics he used.....to lose, and how Stewart-Cousins won without you. I hope you're proud of yourself, you fucking idiot.